Missing: A Reunion Story
by toffee apple
Summary: Not compatible with HBP and DH - post Hogwarts. Harry and Draco have been missing for a long time. No one knew they had been missing together. It's time for a reunion story. Will be in two or three chapters


**Disclaimer: **This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**A/N **This is just a little something I decided to write a while ago. It's part one of two and the last chapter should follow soon and should be longer than this one. It is Harry/Draco slash. It is also AU since it doesn't follow HBP and DH - it was written before either. Please read and review. I want to know what you think.

This is not beta-ed. I am sorry if there are mistakes, I am not fluent.

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**Here and back again**

Everyone remembers those days of Hogwarts when Harry Potter was a student. Everyone remembers those days as clearly as if they were not so long ago. However, they were ten years ago, Harry Potter's last year in Hogwarts was a decade ago. He was now 27 years old, a man. What happened in that last year in Hogwarts, you ask? What do you expect? The hero, of course, defeated the great Dark Lord. How? That is for another story, another time. I am here to tell you what happened at the Hogwarts Reunion, ten years after the defeat of the evil.

I am Draco Malfoy and I am here to tell you that story, with some help from a few of my friends. I, of course, wouldn't be here if I were a Death Eater, so it is safe to presume that I obviously am not. Were, maybe, but am not.

The story begins.

"Hermione, what exactly are we doing here?" asked a tall, freckled man. He wore fancy red robes which pronounced his ginger hair even more than necessary. His long limbs resembled ones of a great big, red acromantula. But he would not appreciate if you were to tell him that.

A woman with a recognizable bushy hair and spectacles that made her look like her old Transfiguration Professor did not answer. She merely shook her head at her husband. A small brown haired girl, with freckles was playing around her feet. She looked no more than five years old.

"Hermione, are you even _listening _to me?"

"Ron, honestly! How many times have you asked me since we got here? Please calm down." She surveyed the Hall strictly and didn't say anything more. She was very much used to her husband. After all, they've known each other for seventeen long years.

"I wish Harry were here," Ron, as the woman called him, said silently.

"I wish it too, but there is nothing we can do but wait," Hermione answered and sighed heavily. "Where's Lily?" She turned around to search for her daughter. There weren't many people there yet. Hermione, Ron and their daughter were early. Mrs. Weasley wanted to be among the firsts to come to the Reunion.

"I dunno," her husband shrugged and turned to look for her.

Hermione looked worriedly around the whole Great Hall, but there was no reason to be worried. Her little prankster was laughing and talking happily with a man with blond hair who was smiling. Hermione went across the Hall.

"Here you are, I was looking for you, " Hermione said happily and held her up. "I'm sorry if she was bothering you, she is a little –"

"Hello, Hermione," the man with blond hair said and outstretched his hand.

Hermione was shocked by the action and she could do nothing else but shake the man's hand absently. "Ma….Malfoy?"

Malfoy smirked, "No need to stare, I know I am every girl's dream."

If she were in a fully conscious state, she would have bitten back a retort, but unfortunately, she was not. "Where have you been? What are you doing here? What happened to you?"

"Easy, easy," Malfoy replied. "We have all the time we need."

"But this is such a surprise…Ever since you and Harry both disappeared—"

"I am here now. I see you're still the same. Where's Weasley?"

"Some things, or people, never change."

"Yet, some do."

For the first time in nine years, she looked at him really carefully. The reason she didn't recognize him at first was probably his hair. It was still white-blond, but was playing loosely around his head and had a few black streaks. He was wearing, she noticed with astonishment, black jeans and a gray shirt. Nevertheless, he looked very elegant.

"What's up with the hair?" she asked curiously, but cautiously.

"Oh, that," he said and reached for his hair. "Not that it's any of your business, but my boyfriend loves it like that, so I decided to please him." He grinned wickedly at her.

"B—boy…friend?"

"Such a disappointment, I know. All those lovely girls waiting to crawl under my sheets, but what can I say, he is just too irresistible. The way he touches me in places, the way he kisses me, the way he-- " Malfoy sighted dramatically.

"Oh shut up you prat! Boyfriend? Who is he then, someone I know? And why is he not here now?"

"It is someone you know and he will be here. Wouldn't you just like to _die _because of all this suspense?"

The reason why Malfoy and Hermione were in such a friendly mood was because they became something _close to _friends in the last year in Hogwarts, when everything was cleared and no one thought he was a Death Eater anymore. Ron of course, was still wary of his old Slytherin nemesis, so it was best to keep him safely away from the present dialogue. It wasn't such a difficult task since he was now talking to his daughter Lily and eating cakes at the other side of the Hall.

"So that means you're gay?" Hermione decided to ignore Malfoy's last remark.

"Oh very clever Hermione, very clever. No, I'm hundred percent straight and I've been fooling around and acting my undying love for a male person for ten years."

"Stop that! You know what I mean! If it's someone I know then he must have been a Hogwarts student….let me get this clear. You've been in love with _him _for ten years…yes you did always seem a bit gay when I look at it that way. Fashion sense, hair, apricot marmalade—"

"Hey! What is wrong with apricot marmalade??" Malfoy asked suddenly.

"Apricot marmalade is very gay, Draco."

"Where did you hear _that_? Wait….let me get this straight, no pun intended, was that the reason Potter chocked on his pumpkin juice when I said my favourite was apricot marmalade, and laughed for five minutes?"

"Pretty much, yes," she said and choked back a laugh.

"Damn! He didn't want to tell me. I finally have him!" he said to himself, but Hermione heard it too.

"What, wait….you asked him? When? I clearly remember that that breakfast was the last time we all talked---you couldn't have asked him later, in the middle of the batt—"

"I, uhh, I….I asked him after we….uhhh….went out of the Hall," Draco stuttered, "When you couldn't hear.

For the first time, Hermione saw Draco in such a position. He didn't know what to say, he was all flustered. She looked at him suspiciously, but let it pass.

Desperately in need of a change in subject, Draco mentioned the little red-haired girl who, it was not difficult to guess, was her daughter. He nodded in Lily's and Ron's direction casually. "Yours and Weasley's, huh? Could have noticed the red tame from miles away."

Hermione was used to Draco's jokes and did not take much notice to them anymore. Even if it has been nine years since they last saw each other, Draco was still fresh in her memory and it was easy to get back to the old routine.

"Lily, she's four and a half. A little prankster, Fred's and George's influence, I reckon. They're her favourite uncles." Hermione grinned proudly at her little girl. "She's too smart for her own good sometimes, I reckon."

"Taking it from her mother's side then, I see," Draco smirked. When Hermione looked at him questioningly, he just turned on his I-am-an-innocent-child-and-I-know-nothing face.

"Was that an insult to Ron or a compliment to me?" she smiled.

"Why, of course!"

"Of course to what?" she looked at him deep in the eyes, searching for a clue. But when she didn't find anything, and Draco didn't reply, she let the subject drop, with a small smile lingering on her lips. She had missed this. These---conversations they shared. She missed talking to her…friend. Yes, he was a friend. She also missed hearing Draco and Harry argue. It was always a heated sort of arguing, but would stop as quickly as it began. This bickering was a type of a routine in their last year as students in Hogwarts. It was a paradox because it seemed to work for both Harry and Draco. She thought they even enjoyed it.

Even after ten years, the memories still hurt. She was angry at Harry, then disappointed, then downright sad. The memories, even now, made her eyes fill with tears. Whatever made Harry leave and not come back for ten years must have been really big and important.

"What are you thinking about?" Draco asked suddenly, waking Hermione from her memories.

"Oh, nothing…never mind." Hermione answered and dismissed it with a wave of her slim hand.

"Don't you 'never mind' me. You know it has never worked," Draco said urgently. "I remember that look. You had it on at the time you thought Weasley disappeared on a mission and you thought he would never come back."

"Oh all right! I was thinking about Harry," Hermione decided to be honest.

Somewhere during the conversation, Draco and Hermione both sat down. On the sound of Harry's name he momentarily straightened up. "What about Harry?"

"I presume you know that I haven't seen him for ten years. It's been a…long time and I just remembered the way you used to fight over things and you would always make up quickly afterwards."

Draco didn't have time to reply as they were interrupted by a rather surprised yell, "Malfoy?! What the hell are you doing here? Where the hell have you been all these years?"

Draco's head turned abruptly to the sounds of Ron Weasley's voice. His face expressionless, he replied, "Always the tactless one, aren't you, Weasley? For your information, I'm here for the same reason you are, but I don't think it's your business to know where I have been before."

"Well, you could just return to where you came from, there's no better time than now to become a missing wizard, _again_," Ron replied. "Besides, the village of nowhere just owl'd here and they want their idiot back."

"RONALD WEASLEY! HOW CAN YOU SAY SUCH THINGS TO A PERSON WHO HAS DONE SO MUCH FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY?! HAVE YOU ALREADY FORGOTTEN ABOUT IT?" Hermione yelled at the top of her lungs. She was only lucky that there were not many people there, yet.

Ron shamefully backed away, but surprisingly, Draco didn't do as much as glance at Ron. He didn't even fire a sarcastic retort. It seemed as if he didn't even hear anything that Ron or Hermione said. He was looking past Ron's shoulder, to a lone figure leaned casually on the doorframe, some fifteen feet away from them. He stood there, as is he was glued, and just looked.

Hermione suddenly looked at Draco and saw his expression. She quickly turned her head in the same direction Draco was looking. She let a soft gasp of disbelief and tugged on Ron's robes.

Ron turned too. When he saw the stranger, he immediately jumped and ran to him, any and every rule like 'Men do not do such things as hugging and crying in public' were cast away.

"Harry?! Merlin's bloody beard Hermione, it's Harry! As soon as he said it he hugged the black-haired man forcefully, as if trying to squeeze the man's bones out of his body. Harry was back.

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So? What did you think? Please leave me a review and tell me. Are you interested in what happens next?


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